Tenon trouble - jig is junk!

[Jeff Horton]

So today I get the tenon jig my father inlaw keeps promising me. As I expected it needed some work. It's a decent looking jig but I have fought with the stupid thing for a couple of hours and I an not get it to cut square shoulders. Regardless what I do I end up with them on a slight angle and that means that one side will fit flush and the other side doesn't. So I gave up on that and it's go in the scrap bin as far as I am concerned.

I am going to back to cutting them with the dado set on the table saw. They may not look as nice but at least they are square! I may look at building a jig now that I have the unisaw and know I am going to keep it. Cheap tools are so frustrating.

So how do you cut your tenons? I know I couldn't cut them by hand yet so I am not going to try. Will practice on it but not to that point yet.

[pat warner]

These are router cut. (http://patwarner.com/images/index_tenon.jpg)

Work held on-end and the hand router walks around the stick with semi special rabbet bits cutting the shoulders.

Routers (http://www.patwarner.com)

[glenn bradley]

I use Rockler's Delta-wanna-be. Goes on sale for around $55 now and again. The cursor is junk but a strip of accurate rule and a plastic cursor with a hairline scribed into it solves that for the most part. Not sure if I'd pay $90 for it but, after using it a few times, I might. I know there's other folks on here that make their own out of scrap and do excellent work with them. I just like the heavy cast iron feel.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10185&SearchHandle=DADBDGDDDADADDDGDDGDGFDIGDDHDHDICNGFD HGCGBCNDEDBDBDGCNGBDHDDGGCNDDDEDADCDJGBDGDEDDGBGFG GDADADADBDCDADADADJHEGFGOGPGOCAGKGJGHDADADGDADADAD FDGDADADFDCEEECEDEEEFEOEHECEIEJEGEBEIEDEHEKEHEEEHE GEDEEEEEJEEEBEDEEEEEKEEEBEDEEEDEFEEEJEEEBEDEBEDEOE DEBEDEFEEEKEEEBDADADADBDFDADADADBDADADADADADADADAD ADADADADBDADADADADJHEGFGOGPGOCAGKGJGHDADADADBDB&filter=tenon%20jig

P.s. No, I didn't make this link up ;-)

[David Tiell]

Jeff,
A while back I built the jig I posted pics of in this thread:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=159894#post159894

I love the simplicity of it and the quick setup. the one change/improvement I intend to make are adding a couple of clamps, probably toggle type, that will allow a little more clamping pressure closer to the blade, as suggested in the thread. It's very simple to make from scrap, just make sure it's square, and that your fence is perpendicular to the table if you make it so it slides over the fence as I did.

Dave

[Allen Bookout]

I used this one to cut sixteen tenons a couple of weeks ago and it worked slick as could be. Very accurate. Has a good manual. I decided for sixty bucks it was not worth spending the time to build one.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/h7583

Allen

[Bruce Wrenn]

Woodcraft sells theirs for $54.99 on sale. With the exception of color and handwheel it is same as my Delta. When I bought my Delta, it was missing a handle, and I went to Woodcraft and checked and theirs fits.

[Seth Poorman]

Jeff
I still use my dado blade on the tablesaw,it seems to work quickly , but I have never used a jig . Am I missing out ? :confused:

[Don Baer]

I've used my TS with and without a Dado se, used my band saw and used my router. Oh and I've cut em by hand too.

They all work, it just has to fit into a mortise.

[Mike Henderson]

I only use a tenon jig when I have to cut complex tenons - that is, tenons at an angle, and maybe the shoulder at an angle also. You encounter these in chairs, say when fitting a stretcher to the back leg. Most of the time you don't get the angles perfect so you have to hand trim the tenon and the shoulders a bit - if the jig doesn't work perfectly you don't notice it.

On regular straight tenons, I cut them on the table saw with the sled and a stop block. If I have a bunch to do, I use a dado blade, but if I only have one or two, I just use the regular sawblade and run the wood over it a bunch of times. Either way, it's pretty simple and straight forward. Much easier than the tenon jig.

If you make your mortises with a slot mortiser or a router, you'll have to round the tenon before inserting it. If you use a benchtop mortiser, you'll wind up with a square mortise so you won't have to modify the tenons.

Mike

[Allen Bookout]

Jeff
I still use my dado blade on the tablesaw,it seems to work quickly , but I have never used a jig . Am I missing out ? :confused:
Seth,

After you get the spacers made for each thickness of the tenons that you might need to make and save one tenon of each size for setup of the jig that it is very fast and accurate to use. I made all of my jig cuts on all pieces first and then threw on the crosscut sled with a stop block and finished them up. It would be interesting to see two persons that are both very proficient with each method compete in an accuracy and speed test. Then we would know the answer to your question. I think that it might depend on the length of the tenon due to several passes of the dado blade for longer tenons vs one vertical cut on each of the four sides with the jig and one horizontal cut on each of the four sides using a sled or miter gauge.

I do think that, once you get the hang of the jig and the spacers made, that it is much faster to set up the jig than it is to remove the regular blade and install and set the dado blade. So I do think that if you are just going to do a limited number of tenons and go back to a sawing operation that the jig would be faster.

One thing that I did find was that it was a little difficult to make the spacers accurate on the first try. I made them a LITTLE narrow and added strips of duct tape untill the tenon was the correct thickness.

Allen

[Mike Wenzloff]

...So how do you cut your tenons? I know I couldn't cut them by hand yet so I am not going to try. Will practice on it but not to that point yet.
Mostly by hand--hey, you asked...

When I had the shop and it was production work, I mostly used the bandsaw. Once in a while I had something complicated to cut and I still hand cut those.

The year before I closed the shop, I bought a WoodRat and if the scale of the project supported its use, that was the fastest method. Long work I still used the BS.

I did the tenon jig thing, too. The large Delta. Still have it gathering dust somewhere. Worked. But I didn't like pieces-parts sticking up in the air, especially the long parts of say a bed or long dresser.

Take care, Mike

[Paul Libby]

I use a dado set on my table saw. I have a Delta jig, but haven't seen the need for it for most work.

[Steve Schoene]

I cut the shoulders one the cross cut sled, with a stop block to ensure consistent length. The vertical cuts on the tenon jig give a smooth side to the tenon. This is basically the same way one would do it by hand.

[Alan DuBoff]

Jeff,

I'd cut them by hand, but the band saw is also not a bad option.

Like MikeH, I have used a jig, but only for a compound cut, and actually have a jig that I bought for something other than tenons, I bought it to cut bevels on boards.

So many ways you could do them, but how about posting a pic or two of the jig you're using so we can see or understand why it's not working. I have a delta jig that cuts straight.

[tod evans]

jeff, i use the shaper...02 tod

[Guy Germaine]

Here's what I use. It just slides along the fence and works great. I make the shoulder cuts with a crosscut sled and stop block, then use this to make the cheek cuts. It's not pretty, but it gets the job done.

http://www.fototime.com/224075C70B46BD8/standard.jpg

[Al Willits]

Those who have the room and a dedicated shop will probably have something better/more fancy, but like Bruce, I have the Woodcraft jig, easy to set up and it cuts straight, not bad for $55.

I did find putting a small block of wood under the piece to be cut, then tightening the clamp that holds the piece, then removing the small block (1/2" MDF) made it go a bit easier.. fwiw

Al

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I have historically made them using a dado cutter.
The Pain was in angled tenons.

Recently I made a Tenon Jig from some 1 /12" thick maple butcher block from an old project. It's plenty heavy and is adjustable for angles. It is such that I can lay it across the cross cut fence and clamp it right to the sliding table.

I never trusted my old saw to produce a decent jig fearing that the errors in the old saw would produce errors that would only compound themselves when I tried to use a shop made jig produced on the same saw.

However, all that said I am still left with the question of whether it is better to use two blades to cut the tenon (one pass two shoulders) or to simply use the stop on my crosscut fence and work with a block the thicknes of the mortise plus the blade.

I have yet to try the two blade method.